In the Bear's House

N. Scott Momaday

• Publisher: UNM Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780826348395
• eBook ISBN: 9780826348418
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Let me say at the outset that this book is not about Bear (he would be spoken of in the singular and masculine, capitalized and without an article), or it is only incidentally about him. I am less interested in defining the being of Bear than in trying to understand something about the spirit of wilderness, of which Bear is a very particular expression. . . . Bear is a template of the wilderness.--from the Introduction

Since receiving the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his novel House Made of Dawn, N. Scott Momaday has had one of the most remarkable careers in twentieth-century American letters. Here, in In the Bear's House, Momaday passionately explores themes of loneliness, sacredness, and aggression through his depiction of Bear, the one animal that has both inspired and haunted him throughout his lifetime.

With transcendent dignity and gentleness, In the Bear's House celebrates Momaday's extraordinary creative vision and evolution as one of our most gifted artists.

THE BEAR-GOD DIALOGUES

YOU ARE, URSET. I AM, YAHWEH

Undefined space. Two chairs under a light, perhaps a street lamp or a Chinese lantern in a tree. YAHWEH, the Creator, is slouched in one of the chairs, dozing. Enter URSET, the bear, very softly, warily. He stands for a moment beside the empty chair, tentative, ill at ease. He sits.

URSET

Ah, ahem. Pardon, Great Mystery. Beg pardon.

(YAHWEH stirs, stretches, looks up.)

It is only I, Urset.

YAHWEH

Yes? What? Oh, yes, it is you, Urset. How are you?

URSET

Do you know me, then?

YAHWEH

Know you? How could I not know you, Urset. I created you.

URSET

Yes, yes, I have dreamed of that. I have dreamed that I came very small from your hands.

YAHWEH

So small. You were scarcely larger than a rat. I thought, when I saw you in your new corporeal being, that I had made some mistake, for I meant you to be formidable, and there you were, a wet rat. And yes, you did indeed come from these hands. These very fingers, these palms, the heels of these hands. I made a little ball of fur, wet fur—from something floating on the waters, as I recall—a knot of hair, a bit of drift. It was you! And, behold, you became formidable. I don’t mind telling you, Urset, you are one of my showpieces. I am proud of you.

URSET

I was accomplished at your hands. I was wonderful, therefore, was I not? Am I not?

YAHWEH

The accomplishment was realized on time, according to plan. It was a simple thing, really—child’s play.

(pause)

But there is something on your mind, Urset. Why do you come to me?

URSET

I am troubled. There is a heavy unrest in me, and I cannot easily speak of it.

YAHWEH

Are you not well?

URSET

Yes, on the whole I am well, thank you.

YAHWEH

Then—

URSET

I cannot easily speak of it. Had I words . . .

YAHWEH

Words, language, speech. That old, old matter of words. Yes, I might have known.

In the beginning was the word, you know, and I was there. I was the word. We are indivisible, the word and I. I Am is my name, and Jehovah and God and the Supreme Being and the Great Mystery. I hope that you will speak to me from your heart, Urset. And I hope that you will express your heart in fine, beautiful language. For I have an array of beautiful words about me, and elegant turns of speech. I delight in the language of my creatures. Your voice, Urset, as I remember, your voice is not unlike the voice of Man—vox humana. And that voice is one of the finest instruments of sound and meaning in the world—indeed the finest.

I would hear your voice, Urset, as I would hear rolling thunder, as I would hear the waves of the ocean crashing against the Cliffs of Moher, as I would hear the Fifth Symphony, as I would hear Charles Laughton reading from my story of Job or that of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as I would hear the lines of Homer, in which are sung the Trojan Wars. I would hear of it in words that play upon the sunrise, that resound in the caverns of the Malpais, that roll on the winds of the desert at first light. I would hear of it in words, Urset, in words that soothe and strike, that console and devastate, in words that descend into the blackness of the ocean depths and soar into the terrible brilliance of the sun. I would be astonished by your words.

URSET (after a long pause, humbled)

As I am by yours, Great Mystery. To tell you the truth, all words confound me. The word “rock” confounds me. “Tree” confounds me. “Child” confounds me. The word “sorrow” staggers me. The word “love” drops me to my knees. And yet silence resonates among all these words, and silence disturbs me most of all.

YAHWEH

I see that you are well enough, Urset. With these hands I placed you in the elements of earth, air, fire, water, and language and silence. You can talk to me, Urset. You may confide in me, and you may know that you exist in your name and in the words that tell your story, as I exist in my name and in the story in which all other stories have origin and being from the beginning to the end of time.

URSET

You are the Great Mystery.

YAHWEH

I am that I am. That is all. I am the object of your being. I am the storyteller and the story that inheres in your words and in your voice.

URSET

I am a creature made of flesh and blood and bone and hair. And you are a god made of words.

YAHWEH

You are, Urset. I am, Yahweh.

URSET

In my words and in my heart I am Urset. You are Yahweh.

YAHWEH

In your words and in your heart.

URSET

May I come again—with words?

YAHWEH

Come to me again with words, Urset.

BERRIES

URSET

Here. I brought something for us to eat.

YAHWEH

Ah, huckleberries. Thank you, Urset. Most kind.

URSET

I hope you like berries. We can be messy with them if you like, as I do. We can have purple lips and tongues. We can let the juice drip into our beards. Then everyone will know that we have eaten red-purple-blue, ripe, delicious, juice-squirting berries.

YAHWEH (boisterous)

Ha! They will think we have been discussing serious things, affairs of state, perhaps, strategies of war. Two old chiefs, in wise council, muttering, making faces. Our bibs will be stained as with blood! But, truly, Urset, we shall have done nothing more than eat berries.

URSET

We shall have eaten them with enthusiasm.

YAHWEH

With reckless abandon, with irresistible intent, in fury and frenzy.

URSET

In the manner of cubs.

YAHWEH

With the manners of cubs.

URSET

You see, these berries have ripened to a perfect sweetness in the sun—yonder, on the long slope.

YAHWEH

Yes, the thickets there. Wonderful berries. I like them very much indeed.

URSET

I like them very much, too, indeed.

YAHWEH

It is in your nature, if I may say so.

URSET

You know, I have been wanting to talk to you about that.

YAHWEH

About your fondness for berries?

URSET

Well, about my nature, actually—and yours, if I may be so bold—about the nature of . . . things.

YAHWEH

I see. Yes, Urset, that is an interesting topic. I think a good deal about the nature of things, their essential qualities and characteristics, their deep aspects. But have you certain questions, specific questions? Here is a matter that wants some point, some ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Bear-God Dialogues
• Poems
• Passages
• About the Author